No. 34 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)

(Updated, September 2024) A view of the Desertas (see PAJ1995), south of Madeira, as viewed by Bray from the 'Pallas'. The bearing of south by east and a half east at the top is a little confusing since the view suggests it is that of the ship from the islands, not vice-versa. In other words this seems to be a view looking up the almost north-to-south-lying 14-km chain of the Desertas after the 'Pallas' had left anchor off Funchal, on the central south-west coast of Madeira, and headed south. The flat-topped, dark islet in the foreground is Chao; behind rises the foreshortened bulk of Deserta Grande, with the pyramidal peak to the right being Bugio, also foreshortened. Though difficult to see at far left, Bray appears to have included the 50-metre 'stack' that lies just off the south end of Chao (now off and below a low modern lighthouse on the cliff there): locally called Farilhao or the Ilheu de Nossa Senhor, this is the feature formerly called in English 'Sail Rock'. The islands only have a history of occasional use by fishermen, with no effectively cultivable ground and only Deserta Grande large enough to capture a poor supply of rainwater. Today they are a restricted area of natural conservation interest, largely for a small population of monk seals breeding on Deserta Grande, of which a small area is also home to an endemic species of large and poisonous wolf spider (lycosa ingens) also called the Desertas or Madeiran tarantula.

This is one of 73 drawings by Bray (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album that was purchased for the Museum by the Macpherson Fund of the Society for Nautical Research in April 1991. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest. For further details see PAJ1976.